As The Drum revives its most notorious award show, we’re looking back at past highlights to gauge what we might expect from entries this year.
W**K From Home
After a two-year hiatus, The Drum is relaunching its most unruly and unfiltered celebration of speculative, satirical and downright absurd creative work. The Chip Shop Awards return this September at a time when the ad industry is tying itself in knots over authenticity, AI and award eligibility. But where other shows are getting stricter, Chip Shop is doubling down on creative anarchy.
Originally created to honor work that “would never make it past legal,” the awards have always offered a platform for the wild ideas that other shows wouldn’t touch – fake ads, speculative campaigns and the sort of mischief that typically dies in someone’s drafts folder. It’s a creative playground where the only rule is: be brilliant.
To get a taste of what might be coming this year, we’ve rounded up five of the most outrageous winners from years past.
Campaign: W**k From Home
Agency: BBD Perfect Storm
Created by: Jacob Hill-Gowing, Seb Hill and Cory Eisentraut
This campaign addressed a problem no one saw coming. During Covid-19 lockdowns, sperm donations in the UK dropped by 66% while unemployment surged.
With each donation earning £35, the team behind this fake campaign thought, “That’s a lot of potential donors sitting idle.” Their cheeky solution: bold digital and social ads directing men to the London Sperm Bank WFH microsite. Donors would receive a ‘W**k From Home’ kit, including a how-to guide, door hanger, donation pot, ice pack and courier packaging.
Judge Sherina Florence, group creative director at 72andSunny, called it “phenomenal” and praised its relevance, creativity, and bold execution. The campaign won top honors for being surprising, contextual and brave.
Campaign: Guinness Stay at Home
Agency: @redballoonluke
Created by: Luke O’Reilly
This entry captures the spirit of the Chip Shop Awards. Originally a Twitter submission for a One Minute Briefs competition with @TheStayingInn, it emerged just as lockdown began and urged people to stay home.
Within 24 hours, it went viral, earning global attention and headlines as “The perfect Guinness ad that wasn’t really a Guinness ad.” Days later, Guinness made it official, sharing it on its own channels.
Alongside two Chip wins, it also picked up Vinegars for Best Leisure and Best Outdoor.
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Campaign: Am (i) Normal?
Created by: Charlotte Alford and Lucy Donagh
This campaign made a bold opening statement: “Everywhere you look, there are penises. They’re unavoidable!” But seeing them from a young age, anywhere from graffiti to cartoon doodles to rather more sinister lewd pictures, means the stigma has gone.
Alford and Donagh set out to balance the scales for people with female bodies. “By simplifying the way we see vulvas and the education we give to young wxmen about their bodies and sexuality, they can be free to work out what ‘normal’ means to them as individuals.”
Campaign: Idiotisk, The Self-Assembly Coffin
Created by: TMW Business for Ikea
This Covid awareness campaign mock-up from TMW Business for Ikea used dark humor to highlight the seriousness of the pandemic.
By presenting a coffin that users assembled themselves, it underscored the risks of ignoring safety measures in a striking and memorable way.
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Campaign: Big Macs for Big Mouths
Created by: Marketing Concepts
This spoof McDonald’s ad cleverly repurposed the image of a Donald Trump newspaper stack, adding a burger to playfully highlight the need for a really big mouth to tackle a Big Mac. It cheekily suggested that McDonald’s might just be the perfect way to “shut up” Donald Trump.
You can enter The Drum’s Chip Shop Awards before September 5.
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